


I Would Wait (For You To Love Me)

by shiptoomuch



Series: Prompted [8]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Slight fluff, Unrequited Love, kent is a mess, slightly unhealthy relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 04:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7344484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiptoomuch/pseuds/shiptoomuch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When they started dating, Kent told Alexei straightup that he was in love with his ex and probably always would be. And Alexei had only smiled, nodded, and didn’t ask any further questions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Would Wait (For You To Love Me)

“I kissed Jack,” Kent murmurs into Alexei’s sweater when the taller man wraps him in a hug. “I kissed him and we almost-but we didn’t.”

Alexei tenses for a moment before relaxing and Kent can feel him nodding by the way his chin hits the top of his head. “Is okay. We are knowing this might happen when you went tonight, yes?”

Kent nods and sniffles, “Yeah.” But he didn’t want it to. 

-

The thing about Alexei is that he’s too good for Kent. He’s big and warm and wonderful and everything that Kent Parson Does Not Deserve. 

When they started dating, Kent told Alexei straightup that he was in love with his ex and probably always would be. And Alexei had only smiled, nodded, and didn’t ask any further questions.

When, eleven months later, Kent told him that it was Jack and everything that had happened, the Russian had gathered Kent in his arms and whispered his love for him while Kent shook and cried. Kent had said that he loved Alexei but he was still in love with Jack. That he always would be. 

It was the first time he really felt sorry about that fact. 

Alexei _cares_ about Kent. The first time they slept together, he cradled Kent’s face in his hands and kissed him slow and deep, made him feel like he might turn inside out from how soft and wonderful it was. 

Still, there was always Jack.

Most people would walk away when faced with the fact that their love was committed to someone else. But Alexei always stayed.

-

Kent realizes that he’s not in love with Jack Zimmermann anymore between kisses. He misses him, yes. He wants him back in his life. He even loves him.

But Kent isn’t _in love_ with Jack anymore. He no longer wants every inch of Jack that he can get. He doesn’t want to be devoured by Jack Zimmermann. What he really wants is his best friend back.

Still, Jack is kissing him and maybe this means that he wants to be part of Kent’s life too, so Kent lets it happen. He’s not upset when it stops, though. When Jack pulls away looking like he’s just cheated on someone important.

Kent knows that look. Knows that feeling. Wonders if Jack has someone like Alexei who’s waiting for him, who kisses him slow and deep and whispers affectionate terms to him when they fuck. _(Make Love,_ Kent can hear Alexei saying, and almost laughs.)

-

“I’m going to go to Jack’s team’s party tonight.” Kent’s in town for their game against Providence tomorrow night. 

“Okay.” It drives Kent crazy how Alexei can know that Kent isn’t going to be faithful when it comes to Jack, but still lets him go, never fights for him. 

“I might hook up with him.”

“I know. I know how you are feeling for Zimmermann.”

Kent shrugs, tries to shake the nagging twist in his gut. “He’s in talks with your team. What are you going to do when you have to captain your competition?”

“I know you love me, Kenny.”

“And you know I love him too.”

Alexei frowns slightly and nods. “But you cannot have him. So you are with me.”

(Kent is struck by the impulse to tell him that he’s wrong.)

-

Jack signing with Providence would not be the end of the world. He’ll be on Alexei’s team. Kent will see him all the time. They’ll have Jack over for dinner. It’ll be healthy, even.

But eighteen-year-old Kenny is still part of the Kent Parson that now exists. And Kenny’s always been set on the idea of Jack playing on the same team as him, even if the Aces really can’t afford to take Jack on right now, with the way they’re already struggling against the salary cap. 

“I’m sure that’ll make your dad proud,” he spits out and hates it. It makes his mouth buzz like he’s just licked a battery. He straightens his hat and leaves, stepping neatly around the boy who he thinks might be Jack’s Someone. 

-

“I’m never going to leave you,” Kent whispers into Alexei’s shirt so quietly he thinks that the older man surely couldn’t hear it. 

Alexei hums and tightens his arms around Kent. “Is okay, little Ace. You are not needing to tell me anything you are not wanting to.”

He thinks Kent is lying, and that’s the worst thing that Kent can imagine right now. That he’s hurt this beautiful, gentle, caring man so much that he thinks every moment might be his last. 

(Kent doesn’t know why he’s stayed.)

“I need you to know this, though. I don’t love Jack anymore. I mean, he’s my friend, and always will be, but I’m not in love with him. I don’t think I have been for a long time.”

Alexei pulls back to look in Kent’s eyes. He frowns slightly and cocks his head to the side. “Kent, I am not understanding.”

Kent groans and pushes his hair back away from his forehead, his hat long knocked off by Alexei’s long arms. “I don’t want to be with Jack. I only want to be with you, Alexei.”

“Kent,”

Kent cuts him off with a bruising kiss, grabbing Alexei by the back of the head and pulling them together. “I wasn’t ready for you when we started, but you took my anyways. I wasn’t good enough, but you still loved me. Why?”

“Because I am knowing that someday, you might love me too,” Alexei says confidently. “You were hurt by your past, but that is not meaning you get no future. You understand?”

Kent doesn’t, not really. His whole life has been defined by his past, from his father’s absence in childhood to Jack’s overdose, he’s always been looking over his shoulder at what happened. “I love you. I’m sorry I wasn’t fair to you before. I’m sorry I didn’t love you enough. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you enough. Thank you for waiting for me.”

Alexei dips down to brush his lips against Kent’s again. “Would wait hundreds of years for you.”


End file.
